today we're in shimokutazawa in tokyo
and this here is village vanguard by far
one of japan's most
interesting shops and very excitingly
this morning we get the entire shop to
ourselves i'll explain a little bit
about that later on unfortunately it's
not sponsored or anything but let's go
take a peek
this here is village vanguard and if
you've never seen a village vanguard
before you are in for a treat today the
store does have a lot of mainstream
products there's an entire snack aisle
and whatnot that we're gonna check out
over there
later on but for now one of the things i
love about village vanguard is the
number of unique weird or crazy products
they have
so we're gonna start by checking out
some of those today and as we walk
around the shop and try to find some
some cool stuff
we're gonna like like this like magic
bubble bath what
what what what's magical about it
what is an exciting bubble camera i want
one of these
and things like this japan's love for
poop shaped products is
beyond anything if you've ever just want
to get yourself a giant squid plushie
direct from japan
obviously this is the place for you or
things like oh my goodness i love this
you can grow your own little like moss
garden in here in fact this entire
section
is just little things that you can grow
like up here you can grow your own
edamame or there's mini tomatoes and
whatnot here i think we are going to
have
so much fun today so if you've ever or
guess never been to village vanguard i
guess i'll give a little bit of a
rundown on what it's like so village
vanguard itself the concept is like that
exciting bookstore like if we come over
here for example there's an entire
section
dedicated to books in fact a lot of this
store
is just
dedicated entirely to books and the
concept now is it's meant to be like an
exciting bookstore they want to kind of
connect japan and overseas
subcultures i'm already so delightfully
distracted by things like this have you
ever seen this there's a scoop version
and a tea infuser infusion infuser
version and this one's the the tea
infuser it's adorable it's like it's
like look at it look at it look at this
little basically anything in the mugs
and cups section is is gonna grab me
despite me as
with probably a lot of you having way
too many mugs already i don't even have
space for anymore okay moving on also
this may be my first time in my entire
life to see a shoe case so that's neat
shoe cases
are our thing you're gonna find so many
neat products at village vanguard and
the cool thing is they're always
changing like what i was saying before
about shimokitazawa for example it's
like the subculture center of
tokyo or maybe even japan and this
particular shop because of that
has a lot of pressure to keep up with
the subcultures and is in a constant
state of change like no two visits here
are gonna be exactly alike especially if
you open them up let's look at this
i love things like this it's a little
microwave rice cooker
all your little like mini takoyaki
makers and whatnot
this is such a fun place this here this
is butt soap this is soap just for your
butt that's a thing it's butt soap or
right here there's this nagashi soulman
kit that's like look at this you can
make your own nagasi soulmate there's
actually a couple different kinds even
look at that
or if you've ever wanted to have
your own in-home sushi train well there
it is this
it's honestly almost overwhelming like
look at this look at this i don't even i
don't even know what this is you can
make little poop shaped donut-esque
pastry snacks is that i don't feel like
that's a good way to explain that's the
best way i'm gonna be able to explain it
like even back here you can get yourself
an entire cotton candy maker
or sandwich grills crepe maker okay you
know what okay so this is all just
making me hungry so we are moving on one
of the things i love about village
vanguard though is that each one is
unique in its own way in the sense that
the staff and managers of each shop
actually hand-picked the products that
they think would be a good match
for their own store
and the culture of the area sorry i
i love playing cards like honestly there
are just so many neat cards and games
here that i just never ever
seen it's kind of that way everywhere i
go when i travel through different
places in japan one of the things that
i've always loved doing is swinging by
like village vanguard because it is
different everywhere you go each place
has products that you won't see in
others there is obviously
some
overlap but each one is kind of themed
for its location
or area but this one here in particular
has
one product that i really really love
and can't wait to show you it's right
over this way
so when we came in this morning we came
in through the front entrance
right there and
in this area you may have noticed
something especially if you are a
regular viewer you may have noticed that
this here
is a shamisen this is a shamisen
plushie look at that it's a shamisen
plushie and this item's my favorite not
just because it's a shamisen plushie
which is amazing but because this
particular chamois and plushie
this is mine
this is my plushie i spent the last year
working with designers and samples back
and forth from the fact i have i have a
plushie it is soft and squishy and it's
going to be available in village
vanguard here in shimon kitazawa and
potentially other major locations across
japan from like the end of this month
for the next year or so and i'm just
just so happy also since i know that not
everybody's going to be able to come to
village vanguard i will link it in the
description box below for anybody who is
interested and if you are interested
that would mean the world to me and
that's all i'm gonna say about it
because there's still so much more to
see
i have shamisen plushie
so
this big block right here is a lot of
books and manga and stuff like that and
the area right around the cash register
is actually well i guess cash registers
are always fun you get a ton of
interesting little products like like
whatever this is okay he walks that's
not creepy at all and of course being
japan we have more
poop shaped products there's so
much of that
in japan but one of my favorites
is all the snacks what
what
they have nerds
i have never
seen or been able to get nerds
in japan
this is a wildly
wildly exciting moment for me right now
we're just gonna go ahead and
put those there
and look at some of the japanese snacks
like
these right here
incredibly spicy
yakisoba or
incredibly garlicky incredibly great
english norm great english
and i think one of my personal favorites
is
these giant
things of chocobi
that is just
this whole area back here i believe is
food
and snacks
and whatnot and i think that look at
these party packs
they're just gigantic
have you now these aren't actually
japanese but they're very very popular
in japan have you ever had these these
are honey butter almonds and they're
actually really
really good
got some hot sauce and whatnot back here
as well and these country mom cookies
especially
these like chocolate ones are
just
incredible i love these i love them so
much
and this
this is something that you wouldn't
expect to be as popular as it is in
japan
but japan has gone through
a bit of a phase with
edible bugs that's a thing
i
had no idea
until somewhat recently
when a japanese friend started talking
to me about trying all these edible bugs
and i was like you you're you're doing
you're doing what have you ever tried
edible bugs would you try edible buns
also
do you have mido
milo milo i don't know in japan we said
needle i don't know how i would i would
describe it it usually comes in like a
powder form and you mix it up like a
like a chocolate milk but it's supposed
to be
healthier it's not really like a
chocolate milk i'm doing a very bad job
at explaining this let's just keep going
so this is the same brand of country mom
cookies and every now and then you can
even find dr pepper in japan or
this
and heading down this way this sticker
wall is by far one of my absolute
favorites
weird thing that i don't really talk
about
i have an oddly large collection of
onigiri stuff like stickers and stamps
and
everything
looking at sheer volume of stickers here
if i'm coming completely honest with you
i love being able to introduce shops
like this and it's always so much
pressure because there's so much to see
like there's no way we're gonna be able
to see it all in an entire day and
there's no way i'm gonna be able to
cover everything that everyone wants to
see so in the end i just end up running
around like a little kid showing off the
things that i'm excited about like like
these little tamagotchi style things
it's still alive and well in japan do we
still have tamagotchi overseas is that
still a thing and now this entire
section here is manga but unfortunately
i can't get a lot of close-ups on the
manga covers and titles and everything
like that due to copywriting issues and
whatnot kind of same with some of the
other major brand products in the store
so let's head over this way and check
out some of the more unique and
interesting things they have
things like
this i actually i'm weirdly tempted
to buy this today the first time i saw
it i was like what is the point of this
you just
do that you just push and pop them and
then you actually do it and it's weirdly
addictive and a ton of fun so that's the
thing or things like these
here which is
called apparently a handy up roller do
we even have these overseas
these here are used primarily in japan
for for example fat reduction they think
that rolling this across like your arm
or across your face will actually help
narrow down their face and give them
more slim
i don't know it's an interesting concept
to me
here in japan rather than everyone
wanting to have a strong jaw they see
having a narrow or thinned out face as a
sign of beauty i don't maybe that's
normal everywhere how about your country
there's still so much more to see hi in
japan village vanguard can be that one
stop go for for example birthdays and
whatnot if you are looking for
a unique or cool or just you know very
japanese birthday gift to get someone or
even if you live in japan you're looking
for something a little more non-japanese
to get somebody well this is obviously
not an example but these here like the
instant polaroid style cameras are still
wildly popular in japan and i haven't
been back in so long that i don't really
know about north america anymore i have
no base to compare things to that's why
i like to go back for long trips every
now and then so that i can kind of
gain that appreciation for japan and
feel the gap in the juxtaposition
between the countries and this entire
section here
is clothing
some of it is more branded clothing or
we have
entire
meme based clothing there there's
actually space jam clothing here
i
can't say i've ever wanted a space jam
shirt but if i did now i know where to
get it and then over here you get all
like for example the marvel stuff and
the stark industries
and then down here i guess the more
normalized stuff like a lot of socks
this genuinely seems like a very
large amount of space to allocate
just to socks and i know that the
clothing and the bags is also something
that a lot of people
enjoy seeing but again there's just so
much to see that i almost don't even
know where to start you know we should
probably come back sometime and do this
as a live stream i think they would let
us in to do that so if you're interested
in that let me know in the comments down
below and i will ask them i should have
the opportunity to interview some of the
staff and managers as well so if you
want to know more about the shop maybe
we can do a bit of a deep dive if you
have any questions at all
drop them down below the store is going
to be opening in like 10 minutes so i
should probably start wrapping up but
honestly i am
so incredibly excited that i have a
shamisen plushie i have a chimes and
plushie and it's available in village
vanguard again it would mean the
absolute world to me if you were
interested in having one of these in
your homes i will link them down below
for those of you who aren't here or
won't be here in the next year so thank
you guys so much for joining today i had
a ton of fun let's do an even deeper
dive next time and you guys know
i will see you again
real soon
[Music]
you